Exploring N-rich phases in LixNy clusters for hydrogen storage at nano-scale

We have performed cascade genetic algorithm and ab initio atomistic thermodynamics under the framework of first-principles density functional theory to study the (meta-)stability of a wide range of LixNy clusters. We found that hybrid xc-functional is essential to address this problem as a local/semi-local functional simply fails even to predict a qualitative prediction. Most importantly, we find that though in bulk Lithium Nitride, Li rich phase, i.e. Li3N, is the stable stoichiometry, in small LixNy clusters N-rich phases are more stable at thermodynamic equilibrium. We further show a that these N-rich clusters are promising hydrogen storage material because of their easy adsorption and desorption ability at respectively low (< 300K) and moderately high temperature (> 600K).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Marital Violence and Women's Employment and Property Status: Evidence from North Indian Villages

Dominant development policy approaches recommend women's employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women's well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women's employment status and their well-being as measured by freedom from marital violence yields an ambiguous picture. Motivated by this ambiguity, this paper draws on testimonies of men and women and data gathered from rural Uttar Pradesh, to examine the effect of women's employment and asset status as measured by their participation in paid work and their ownership of property, respectively, on spousal violence. Unlike the existing literature, we treat women's work status and violence as simultaneously determined and find that women's engagement in paid work and ownership of property, are associated with sharp reductions in marital violence.domestic violence, employment status, property ownership, India

Light bending in the galactic halo by Rindler-Ishak method

After the work of Rindler and Ishak, it is now well established that the bending of light is influenced by the cosmological constant {\Lambda} appearing in the Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime. We show that their method, when applied to the galactic halo gravity parametrized by a constant {\gamma}, yields exactly the same {\gamma}- correction to Schwarzschild bending as obtained by standard methods. Different cases are analyzed, which include some corrections to the special cases considered in the original paper by Rindler and Ishak.Comment: 15 page

Formation of Vacancies in Si- and Ge-based Clathrates: Role of Electron Localization and Symmetry Breaking

The formation of framework vacancies in Si- and Ge-based type-I clathrates is studied as function of filling the cages with K and Ba atoms using density-functional theory. Our analysis reveals the relevance of structural disorder, geometric relaxation, electronic saturation, as well as vibrational and configurational entropy. In the Si clathrates we find that vacancies are unstable, but very differently, in Ge clathrates up to three vacancies per unit cell can be stabilized. This contrasting behavior is largely driven by the different energy gain on populating the electronic vacancy states, which originates from the different degree of localization of the valence orbitals of Si and Ge. This also actuates a qualitatively different atomic relaxation of the framework.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to a journa

Haematological profile of dengue fever

Background: Dengue is a viral illness that is increasingly becoming endemic in India. This study aimed to study the haematological profile of patients diagnosed with dengue infection in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: 89 patients suspected of having dengue illness were followed. Out of which those confirmed by positive serology were followed and studied in detail (n=46).Results: Common clinical symptoms were fever, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Common haematological abnormalities were thrombocytopenia and leucopoenia. All patients improved clinically with improvement of biochemical and hematological parameters. None of the patients died in this series.Conclusions: Dengue Fever continues to be a significant health problem especially in Northern region of India. A sharp vigilance is required by concerned authorities to prevent and minimize any future outbreak. It is extremely important to implement and maintain an effective, sustainable and community based disease prevention program